Books Science Fiction Five Vintage SF Works About Traveling to the Moon This is how we imagined humanity’s first trip to the moon before Apollo 11… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on April 13, 2026 Credit: JSC/NASA Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: JSC/NASA People the world over welcomed the distraction offered by astronaut Jeremy Hanson as the Canadian and some others made their way to and around the Moon in the spacecraft Artemis II. Now, the idea of a journey to the Moon is nothing new. The Moon has been in the sky for a very long time. I have no doubt it will still be there when humans are a fading memory1. It’s only natural that storytellers have long pondered journeys there. Before the nineteenth century, these journeys were only fantasies. Of late we have begun to imagine Moon travel via technology. You might enjoy these early works. Autour de la Lune by Jules Verne (1869) Having in 1865’s De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes solved the trifling problems of financing, constructing, and successfully firing the stupendously large Columbiad cannon, the occupants of the Columbiad’s shell—Barbicane, Nicholl and Ardan—are on their way towards Earth’s Moon. Their goals are comparatively modest. No landing is intended, only circumnavigation and return. Nevertheless, nobody has ever made this journey before. Some of the hazards are known, but others will come as unpleasant surprises. The trio may never return to Earth again. As was the custom in those days, the translated edition available in my school library was appalling. Verne was not taken seriously in l’anglosphere, and publishers were content to print slap-dash translations. The single positive change in that edition was printing both 1865’s De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes and Autour de la Lune in a single volume. I would have been quite vexed to read the first volume to discover it ended just as the three men were fired into space. Die Frau im Mond by Thea von Harbou (1928) Helius possesses the technical know-how needed to construct a Moon rocket. His associate Professor Mannfeldt provides the necessary motivation; Mannfeldt is convinced that the Moon harbors abundant gold. Therefore, should Helius turn theory into a functioning rocket, he could be assured of vast material reward for having done so. The fly in the ointment: gangsters catch wind of Mannfeldt’s claims. Helius is forced to accept a criminal, Turner, as part of the crew. The surprisingly large crew—Helius, Mannfeldt, assistants Windegger and Friede, Turner, stowaway Gustav and a small mouse named Josephine—embark in the spaceship (also named Friede) for the Moon. The journey is complicated by technical challenges and romantic triangles, but the true danger is, of course, the extremes to which men like Turner will go to satisfy their greed. This novel is the basis for the famous Frau Im Mond, film directed by Fritz Lang. Gustav is very lucky that the Friede is wildly over-engineered. Otherwise he might well have been dispatched out through the airlock as soon as he was discovered. The Spirit on the Moon by Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, and Wallace Wood (1952) The Interplanetary Flight Commission is determined to put men on the Moon. The problem is that any man with the requisite skills has far better options than a quite-possibly-one-way trip to an airless, deadly world. Any free man, that is. Hardened convicts can be enticed into volunteering, in return for freedom should they return. Someone will have to accompany the crooks, to keep them on-mission and ensure the success of the venture. That man is, as the title suggests, masked crimefighter Denny Colt, AKA the Spirit. But is even a two-fisted man of action up to the challenges of keeping panicky convicts alive on an alien world? Sending masked crimefighters to the Moon? What next? Dick Tracy? Efforts to test crewed spaceflight with animals infuriated animal welfare agencies. Nobody seems all that bothered about sending convicts. This is just one reason why this atypical Spirit arc is incredibly depressing…the art, the Spirit’s internal monologue, and the unpleasant fatalities all play a role. On a marché sur la Lune by Hergé (1954) (Translated to English as Explorers on the Moon) Professor Calculus’ atomic-rocket-powered spacecraft is more than up to the task of delivering a crew of highly trained professionals to the Moon and returning them safely. However, for reasons that were no doubt compelling at the time, the Moon rocket is crewed by the Professor, assistant Frank Wolff, plucky boy reporter Tintin, Tintin’s dog Snowy, Tintin’s alcoholic friend Captain Haddock, not to mention an astonishing number of stowaways, accidental and deliberate. The added mass does not prevent the Moon rocket from reaching and landing on the Moon, nor do the wacky hijinks of stowaway detectives Thomson and Thompson. Even the violent antics of stowaway Jorgen cannot prevent success. However, with far more crew than planned, the Moon rocket may well lack sufficient air to return them all to Earth. Vintage science fiction really underplayed the difficulty of stowing away on space craft. Or perhaps tales like this one so persuasively argued in favour of preflight checklists that nowadays nobody ever sets off for space without glancing into closets and airducts for unauthorized passengers. Venture to the Moon by Arthur C. Clarke (1956) In this series of linked short stories (later collected with additional stories in The Other Side of the Sky), the British, Americans, and Russians2 pooled resources for the first expedition to the Moon. Still, someone has to be first among equals. More exactly, simultaneous landing seems unlikely. Which great nation’s ship will be the first to reach the Moon? This good-natured competition is only an early complication. Navigational mishaps, all too successful scientific research, and unsanctioned commodification of the Moon also put in appearances. However, all these pale next to the challenges presented by the British tax system. That last detail might seem like an odd one, if one is not aware of the existence of British tax exiles in bygone days. Would someone really subject themselves to an extended stay on an airless, radiation-soaked world to reduce their tax bill? Too right they would. These are only a few of the pre-Apollo 11 SF stories about first trips to the Moon. I didn’t even mention Lucian of Samosata or Cyrano de Bergerac. No doubt you have your favourites and unless they were one of the five above, no doubt I missed them. Comments are below.[end-mark] Will that be a million years from now… or next week? Won’t it be an adventure to find out? ︎I wonder why the French weren’t invited. ︎The post Five Vintage SF Works About Traveling to the Moon appeared first on Reactor.